Martin Joseph Hoffman (15 November 1929 – 15 May 2018) was a Czech-born British professional
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
player and writer.
Biography
Hoffman was born in Prague, in what was then the
First Czechoslovak Republic
The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...
(which, in the English-speaking world, was often called Czecho-Slovakia). His father and mother were Herman and Toby. He had a younger brother and two sisters. When he was not yet nine years old, he and his brother were sent to stay with his mother's parents in the
Carpathians
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...
, where they studied the
Torah
The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...
. After the
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, his parents were deported to
Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...
, where they died. Hoffman, his brother, and his grandparents went into hiding; but in 1944 they were arrested and transported to
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
. A ''
Sonderkommando
''Sonderkommandos'' (, ) were Extermination through labor, work units made up of Nazi Germany, German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the di ...
'' advised Hoffman to pretend that he was 18, even though he was not yet 14. He was later moved to the
Monowitz-Buna,
Gross Rosen and
Birkenau
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
sub-camps of Auschwitz; and from there he was sent on a
death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...
towards
Buchenwald
Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
. In 1945, he was liberated by American Army troops, who adopted him as mascot, with the honorary rank of sergeant.
After the end of the war, he was relocated to a rehabilitation hostel near
Windermere
Windermere (historically Winder Mere) is a ribbon lake in Cumbria, England, and part of the Lake District. It is the largest lake in England by length, area, and volume, but considerably smaller than the List of lakes and lochs of the United Ki ...
in north-west England. While on a holiday from there, in
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...
in south-west England, he was befriended by a family from
Finchley
Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon.
It is ...
, north London; they offered him a job as a
diamond cutter
Diamond cutting is the practice of shaping a diamond from a rough stone into a faceted gem. Cutting diamonds requires specialized knowledge, tools, equipment, and techniques because of its extreme difficulty.
The first guild of diamond cutters a ...
, took him in, and taught him to play whist.
[It is unclear whether this was ]whist
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play.
History
In 1674, '' The Complete Gamester'' described the game Ru ...
or solo whist
Solo whist is the English form of Wiezen (Belgian or Ghent Whist), a simple game of the Boston family played in the Low Countries. It is a trick-taking card game for four players in which players can bid to make eight tricks in trumps with any pa ...
; probably the latter; the game of whist was by then not often played. He rapidly became addicted to the game. He took up bridge only because some Russian friends asked him to make up a four, and he found the game even more interesting than whist. The diamond trade was not good in the 1950s, and he turned to card-playing for a living; he was a host, that is, a player retained by a bridge club proprietor to make up a table whenever needed but who kept some share of his winnings. He did not play in a
duplicate bridge
Duplicate bridge is a variation of contract bridge where the same set of bridge deals (i.e., the distribution of the 52 cards among the four hands) are played by different competitors, and scoring is based on relative performance. In this way, ev ...
event until the remarkably late age of 35. He and his partner won the event by a wide margin; and he realised for the first time that this was a game he could succeed in as well as enjoy. From then on, he began to offer his services as a paid partner in Europe and beyond, and became widely known as a formidable competitor.
His philosophy of bridge is, "
.I don't consider systems to be particularly important. It is a mistake, in my opinion, to work out a detailed system and stick to it. If you have the reputation of being a player who always makes the book bid and lead you become easy to play against.
He was for many years called the best duplicate pairs bridge player in Europe, if not the world.
His autobiography, ''Bridging Two Worlds'', which includes many terrible details about his Holocaust experiences, was originally circulated privately, but has been published by Masterpoint Press.
Accomplishments
These include:
*
Crockford's Cup winner: 1981
* Spring Foursomes winner: 1969 and 1976
* Brighton Pairs, Harold Poster Cup: 1970, 1987 and 2011
* Easter Congress Guardian Trophy winner: 1969, 1976 and 1982
* National Pairs winner: 1966
*
Hubert Phillips
Hubert Phillips (13 December 1891 – 9 January 1964) was a British economist, journalist, broadcaster, bridge player and organiser, composer of puzzles and quizzes, and the author of some 70 books.
Life
Education and early career
Phi ...
Bowl winner: 1970
*
Tollemache Trophy winner: 1967
* ''Master Bridge'', a televised programme by
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
, winner: 1982. The other contestants included
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif (, ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub ; 10 April 1932 – 10 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the 1950s. He is bes ...
,
Zia Mahmood
Mir Zia Mahmood (born 7 January 1946) is a Pakistani-American professional bridge player. He is a World Bridge Federation and American Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master. As of April 2011 he was the 10th-ranked World Grand Master.
Biograp ...
and
Rixi Markus
"Rixi" Markus MBE (27 June 1910 – 4 April 1992) was an Austrian and British international contract bridge player. She won five world titles, and was the first woman to become a World Grand Master within the World Bridge Federation. .
Publications
*
*
[The title parodies that of '']The Tales of Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...
'', opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Notes
References
1929 births
2018 deaths
Auschwitz concentration camp survivors
British contract bridge players
British people of Czech-Jewish descent
Contract bridge writers
Sportspeople from Prague
{{WPCBIndex